Friday, January 11, 2013

Tilaron and Monteverde day 1

Today was pretty eventful. We arrived in Canas around 630am and sat down at he bus stop to wait for the bus to Tilaron. After a few minutes of waiting, I asked a local when the next bus to Tilaron was coming, and he said 8am. Not wanting to wait around until then, we becan to walk our way down the road, as from my map, I estimated the trip to be about 15 kilometers (about 9 miles), totally walkable, and the bus would likely catch up to us for us to flag down...that or, someone might offer us a ride in the mean time.

We got a little ways down the road and found another bus stop. Just to be thorough, I asked the woman waiting there, and she said the the bus was coming at 730am. By that time, it was almost 715am, so we decided to have a sit own and wait for the bus to get us there. 730am came and passed, and the woman had been picked up by a friend (did not offer us a ride!). Another man showed up and I asked him when the bus was coming, he said 740am. So we waited. 740 came and passed and by that time, the man was picked up...didnt offer us a ride. A boy of abt 16 showed up so I asked him...750am. guess how he got to his destination...yup, he got picked up by a friend. Anyway, this went on until about 81am when the bus finally did come and we hopped on for the hour ride left to Tilaron.

We arrived in Tilaron and asked an official when the next bus to Monteverde was...1230pm, it was only 930am. So much for getting up at the crack of dawn to make it to Monteverde early in the day. No worries, we hiked around the town and in the farmlands for a couple hours, then Ty set up camp with our bags at the bus terminal and I decided to try to make my way of to a large cross at he top of a high hill outside of town. When i got o the foot, the "hill" turned out to be a fairly sheer face, discuised by the grass that grew on it, and the freakishly apt horses and cattle that grazed on the side of it.

The winds here are crazy strong here this season ~October-January and the higher up the hill i climbed, the harsher the winds got. My shirt actually BLEW OFF. I finally got to the top of the hill/mountain (whatever) and did my best to stand upright against the winds, which must have been blowing at about 70 mph (certainly as strong, or stronger than the winds at the top of the Empire State Building). Check out the pictures.

At 1230, we got on the bus to Monteverde where I met three more travelers, one a Swiss-French guy who ended up joing us at the hostel we checked into in Monteverde. The ride through the countryside and up the mountain range (cordiellera) was beathtaking (pictures below, if they manage to upload). Rolling hills, deep valleys, beautiful flora, tiny bridges.

We checked into Pension Santa Elena (Santa Elana is actually the town adjacent to Monteverde, with cheaper hostels) and I immediately booked the night jungle tour which I just got back from. We saw some amazing flora and fauna. Cotimundi, 2-toed sloths, two pit vipers, an orange striped tarantula, catydids, spiders, army ants, paper wasps (one guy got stung!), a brown-jay, a tucan, and probably more that I am forgeting.

Anyway, we just got back to the Hostel and I am feeling like I am missing all the bonding going on behind me , so that's it for this post!